Commission recommends change in plat for pharmacy

Thursday

Feb 14, 2013 at 12:01 AM

If the nation's second largest retail pharmacy company buys land at the junction of Kingshighway and Bishop Avenue, the Planning and Zoning Commission is OK with a replatting of the property to clear the way for construction.

R.D. Hohenfeldt

If the nation's second largest retail pharmacy company buys land at the junction of Kingshighway and Bishop Avenue, the Planning and Zoning Commission is OK with a replatting of the property to clear the way for construction.

"This is the location of CVS," Community Development Director John Petersen told the Planning and Zoning Commission late Tuesday afternoon after acknowledging "rumors have been going around."

The property in question on the northeast corner of Kingshighway and Bishop Avenue, the current location of Blockbuster Video and Papa John's Pizza in one building and Century Signs and Ozark Embroidery in another building.

"All the buildings will be removed," Petersen said, adding that this does not include the furniture store to the east.

That is assuming CVS Pharmacy buys the land.

"They're in the process of buying it," Petersen said.

"They haven't bought it yet."

CVS, through Carlson Consulting Engineers Inc., a Memphis, Tenn., firm, asked for a change in the platting of the lot.

Carlson's request was "to approve the final plat of Bruss's 1st Addition, a minor subdivision, part of Block 11 and 49, of Bishop's 4th Addition."

"This is not technically a subdivision," Petersen said.

The purpose of the plat was to make the property one lot instead of several.

Zoned a highway commercial district (C-3), the property consists of 1.23 acres.

Petersen said the Development Review Committee met Jan 29 to review the plat. Rolla Municipal Utilities requested water frontage fees and the Public Works Department requested corrections to the subdivision plat along with land development permit fees.

The development staff recommended approval by the commission.

Although the Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously to recommend the plat to the Rolla City Council, Petersen said that recommendation would not be forwarded to the council until CVS closes the deal on the property.

The Planning and Zoning Commission is a review and advisory board for the Rolla City Council. If that CVS purchase does not come about, the file will be closed, and the recommendation will not be forwarded, Petersen said.

Voting for the recommendation of the plat were Commissioners Janese Martin, Monte Shields, Greg Sawyer, Russell Schmidt and Robert Anderson. Don Brown, Jack Morris and Dennis Bennett were absent; Paul Stigall is the chairman.

Kyle Williams, an engineer with Carlson Consulting Engineers, attended the meeting. He declined to speak to the newspaper regarding possible construction of a CVS store here, saying he was uncertain about how much authority he had to divulge information.

Second in size to Walgreens, which also has a store in Rolla, CVS was founded in Lowell, Mass., in 1963. It is headquartered in Woonsocket, R.I.

It has grown steadily since its founding with jumps in the number of stores throughout the year by purchasing other chains such as Revco, Peoples Drug, Eckerd, Osco Drug and Sav-on Drugs.

The company has also made news with some questionable practices over the years. Information about these controversies is available in news organizations archives on the world wide web.